"We Who Believe in Freedom"

a report from the Re-Imagining Gathering
by Doug King
posted 11-1-00

Thandeka is an associate professor of theology and culture at Meadville/Lombard Theological School. She has taught in the philosophy department at San Francisco State University and the religion department at Williams College. She has also been a Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center and Stanford University, and a visiting scholar at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Her latest book is Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America. Before receiving her doctorate in theology, Thandeka spent 16 years as an Emmy award-winning television producer. A Unitarian-Universalist minister and theologian, Thandeka was given her name in 1984 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The name is Xhosa and means one who is loved by God.

(From the Gathering program book)

"It's truth-telling time," Thandeka began, "and we're exhausted. And so we come together here -- to re-imagine God." And she reminded her audience of the assurance in Matthew's Gospel, that "when two or three are gathered ... there is She among us." But, she went on, "when we re-imagine the sacred, we have to re-imagine ourselves as well."

The basic thesis for her talk was that "we live in toxic environments -- toxic for both soul and body." They are toxic because they teach us "to believe that at core we are unlovable." To create any new sacred community, then, "we must re-imagine our selves as the sacred vessels they are."

Thandeka develop her proposal for developing this community with readings from her book, Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America. Her first story illustrated her basic point: She had just moved to become a teacher at Williams College, and was invited out for lunch by a wealthy white colleague. After a while the colleague said "I've always wanted to know what it feels like to be black." Thandeka sought a way to respond to this, and finally suggested to the woman that she try a little exercise for a week, and then they could talk again. "This week," she said, "whenever you use any person's name or talk about another person, use the adjective 'white' to describe them. Do that for a week, then we can talk." The woman never called for another lunch date.

Racism, she has concluded, is rooted in children's fear of exile, abandonment, if they hold positive feelings toward persons of another race. They soon learn to set aside such feelings, lest they lose the love of the people nearest and dearest to them. So children learn to hide their original feelings of openness and friendliness toward people of other groups, even to get rid of them; they give up their own integrity in order to survive as part of their own group.

"I believe," she went on, "the same thing happens with issues of gender and sexual orientation" and our attitudes toward anyone else identified as "other."

So all of us have learned "to hide the parts of ourselves that if expressed would lead to destruction. The tragedy is that most of us don't know that we have died." As we know that abused children often adore their abusers, it's clear that what we see in the implanting of racial attitudes is child abuse, she said.

To build community, we must "resurrect the broken, tortured aspect of our selves," she went on. Jesus, himself the victim of torture, recognizes other victims and is with them, saying (in her twist on what speaker Kathy Black heard while sitting helpless in the produce aisle) "There with the grace of God am I."

Concretely, Thandeka has worked with a few others to establish the Center for Community Values, which encourages people to set up Covenant Groups -- 6 to 8 people who covenant together to observe confidentiality in the conversations, to develop opening and closing rituals, to do "check-ins" sharing why they are all so exhausted, to "hear one another into speech." And the members decide on something they want to do together -- read a book, knit, whatever it may be. Further, they agree to decide on something that they will do together every 4 to 6 weeks for the wider community.

The group keeps one empty chair at each meeting, a symbol of their welcome to new members. When the group grows to a dozen members it splits, and so the movement grows. For more on this movement, go to their web site.

Most of the questions after Thandeka's talk focused on the Covenant Group program. She assured one questioner that there is a clear spiritual dimension to the groups, because the rituals provide a time for attending to the meeting of body, mind and spirit, and bring together the interior and exterior dimensions of the lives of the participants. After all, she explained, "the people of Jesus were invited not just to believe in Jesus, but to follow him."

The groups provide a setting in which people can begin to overcome the toxicity and racism that have "broken us," because they create safe places where we can "be who we are, be healthy, vibrant freedom fighters, freedom workers ... where we can cry the tears of the pain, the unspeakable pain from the murders of our own histories." There groups allow us to become "un-stuck," she added, "so we can become reborn."

GA actions ratified (or not) by  the presbyteries   

A number of the most important actions of the 219^th General Assembly have now been acted upon by the presbyteries, confirming most of them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

We provided resources to help inform the reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.

Our three areas of primary interest have been:

If you like what you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and growing!

Please consider making a special contribution -- large or small -- to help us continue and improve this service.

Click here to send a gift online, using your credit card, through PayPal.

Or send your check, made out to "Presbyterian Voices for Justice" and marked "web site," to our PVJ Treasurer:

PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?